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Band descriptors, explained

What each band actually requires

Pick a criterion and a band. See what the examiner needs to hear, what it sounds like, and what moves you up.

Band descriptor explorer

Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 7

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You use a range of complex sentence structures, and you can move between them with some flexibility.
  • Sentences with nothing wrong in them at all are frequent, not occasional.
  • Some grammatical mistakes are still there, and they do not stop you reaching this band.
  • Both halves of the criterion have to be true at once: the range and the accuracy, not one of them alone.

What it sounds like

…at around twenty-four, having avoided it for most of my life due to a mild fear of deep water.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a skill you learned that took a long time in the cue-card library.
not because it was difficult, but because I could see it actually mattered to her day-to-day life.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a time you helped someone in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 8

  • Band 8’s range is wider still, and it moves around that range flexibly.
  • Most sentences — not merely frequent ones — have nothing wrong in them.
  • The mistakes that remain are one-offs rather than something you get wrong every time.

Common traps at Band 7

  • Collecting complex structures but only ever using them in the first sentence of an answer.
  • Making the same small slip — an article, a preposition, a verb ending — in sentence after sentence, which is exactly what holds accuracy below Band 8.
  • Abandoning a complex sentence halfway, which costs you fluency as well as grammar.
The common target

Band 7 at a glance

One line per criterion. Follow any column to the full cell in the explorer.

Fluency and coherence Talks at length without the listener hearing the effort, and the thread holds. Band 7 → Lexical resource Moves vocabulary freely across topics, with some less common and idiomatic language. Band 7 → Grammatical range and accuracy A range of complex structures, with frequent sentences that contain no errors. Band 7 → Pronunciation Everything Band 6 does well, plus some of Band 8 — held across more of the answer. Band 7 →
The arithmetic

How the four numbers become one band

Each of the four criteria is awarded a whole band — there are no half bands inside a criterion. Your Speaking band is the average of those four numbers, rounded to the nearest whole or half band. An average ending in .25 is rounded up to the next half band and one ending in .75 up to the next whole band, which is the same rule that turns your four test sections into an overall score.

Work it out on the band score calculator →
Set the record straight

Facts people get wrong

Academic and General Training share one scale

There is a single Speaking test and a single set of Speaking descriptors. Which version of IELTS you sit changes the Reading and Writing papers, not how your spoken answer is marked.

Pronunciation is not accent

The features being marked are stress, rhythm, intonation, connected speech and individual sounds. An accent is not something to be removed; how much effort the listener has to spend is what counts.

The band covers the whole test

Examiners assess your performance across Parts 1, 2 and 3 together rather than scoring each part on its own, so one shaky answer never gets a mark of its own.

Where to go next

Turn the descriptors into practice

Estimate your band range

Twelve questions about how you actually speak, and the one criterion to fix first.

Estimate your band range →

Vocabulary by topic

Band 6, 7 and 8 collocations for the topics that keep coming up, with a self-test.

Vocabulary by topic →

The grammar examiners hear most

The repeat-offender errors that hold Grammatical range and accuracy below Band 7.

The grammar mistakes examiners hear most →

Band 6 vs Band 7

The same answer at both bands, with the changes that move it up marked out.

Band 6 vs Band 7 →
Everything, written out

The full table

All twenty-four cells — four criteria across bands 4 to 9. The explorer above is the interactive view of exactly this content.

Fluency and coherenceBands 4–9
Fluency and coherence

Band 4

What the examiner needs to hear

  • The gaps between your words are easy to hear, and you speak slowly while you work out what comes next.
  • You go over the same words again, or stop and restart the sentence, several times in one answer.
  • You do join short sentences up, but with the same two or three small linking words every time.
  • Every so often the listener loses track of where the answer is going.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

The answer arrives in short pieces with clear gaps between them, and the same few words come round again while you look for the next idea. The listener can follow the point, but does some of the joining up for you.

What moves you to Band 5

  • Band 5 gets to the end of the answer, even if slowing down or saying something twice is what gets it there.
  • Familiar, simple material starts to run smoothly; only the harder ideas break the flow.
  • You begin choosing signposting phrases on purpose instead of reaching for the same connector each time.

Common traps at Band 4

  • Stopping after one short sentence and waiting for the next question, which leaves the examiner almost nothing to mark.
  • Abandoning a sentence whenever a word goes missing, when finishing it imperfectly would cost you far less.
  • Building each sentence in your first language first — that is what creates the long gaps.
Fluency and coherence

Band 5

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You usually keep the answer moving, but you buy the time by slowing down, repeating a phrase or starting a sentence again.
  • A small set of linking words does all the work, and you lean on them too often.
  • Everyday, familiar material comes out smoothly enough.
  • As soon as the idea gets more demanding, the flow gives way.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

You reach the end of every answer, but the machinery is audible: a phrase repeated while you think, a sentence begun twice, a slower stretch when the topic turns abstract. On familiar ground it still sounds comfortable.

What moves you to Band 6

  • Band 6 is willing to keep talking at length, rather than doing just enough to survive the question.
  • The repeating and the restarting still happen, but only now and then, instead of being what holds the answer together.
  • A wider set of linking and signposting expressions turns up, even if some of it lands in the wrong place.

Common traps at Band 5

  • A memorised opening that sounds fluent for ten seconds and then leaves you with nowhere to go.
  • Joining every idea with “and then”, which turns a story into a list.
  • Playing safe with short sentences to protect the flow, which caps your grammar score instead.
Fluency and coherence

Band 6

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You are willing to keep talking at length instead of stopping after a sentence or two.
  • The thread does slip at times — a repeated phrase, a correction, a pause while you hunt for a word.
  • You have a decent range of linking and signposting expressions.
  • Some of them turn up in the wrong place, and at this band that is expected.

What it sounds like

…after I said I want something longer and more, er, absorbing than what I was reading before.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a book you read recently in the cue-card library.
…it feels less like receiving a thing and more like, you know, being given a small piece of family history.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a gift you received that was special to you in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 7

  • Band 7 keeps going without the listener hearing the effort, and the answer holds together while it does.
  • Pausing to find language is still allowed, but it becomes occasional rather than a feature of every answer.
  • The linking words you already own get used more flexibly, and in the places where they actually fit.

Common traps at Band 6

  • Filling every pause out loud with “how can I say” and “you know” instead of finishing the thought.
  • Over-signposting a two-minute story with “firstly”, “secondly” and “last but not least”.
  • Repeating the examiner’s question back word for word to buy a few seconds.
Fluency and coherence

Band 7

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You can talk at length and the listener never hears you working at it.
  • The answer holds together from start to finish, even when you develop a point.
  • You still pause sometimes to find the right language, and you still repeat or correct yourself — that is allowed here.
  • Linking words and signposting phrases are used with some flexibility, not read off a fixed list.

What it sounds like

There was one moment I still remember clearly: I made an error on a client report, expecting to be reprimanded…
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a person who has inspired you in the cue-card library.
Honestly, I felt a real sense of satisfaction from it — not because it was difficult…
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a time you helped someone in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 8

  • Band 8 pauses over what to say, not over how to say it in English.
  • Repeating yourself and correcting yourself drop to the occasional slip.
  • Topics are developed in a way that suits the question, not simply at length.

Common traps at Band 7

  • Speaking quickly to sound fluent, which usually costs clarity and accuracy at the same time.
  • Rehearsed transition phrases dropped in whether they fit the sentence or not.
  • Long, well-linked answers that drift away from what was actually asked.
Fluency and coherence

Band 8

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You speak fluently, and only occasionally repeat a word or go back to fix something.
  • When you hesitate, it is because you are deciding what to say, not hunting for English.
  • You develop each topic in an order that makes sense and suits the question.
  • The joins between your ideas are easy for the listener to follow.

What it sounds like

One afternoon in particular has stuck with me: we stumbled upon a tiny family-run restaurant almost by chance…
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a place you visited that you would recommend to others in the cue-card library.
Looking back, what struck me most was how deliberate the gesture was — he’d thought carefully about the timing.
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a gift you received that was special to you in the cue-card library.

What Band 9 adds

  • At Band 9 even the occasional repetition goes, and any pause is purely about the idea.
  • Every device that holds speech together is used exactly where it belongs.
  • Topics are developed fully rather than adequately.

Common traps at Band 8

  • Treating polish as the goal and leaving the content thin, so topics get covered rather than developed.
  • Letting one well-rehearsed area carry the test, until an unfamiliar Part 3 question exposes the rest.
Fluency and coherence

Band 9

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You speak fluently, and it is rare for you to repeat a word or correct yourself.
  • Any pause you take is a pause for thought about the idea itself.
  • The devices that hold your speech together are all used exactly appropriately.
  • Every topic is developed fully.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

The delivery stops drawing attention to itself: ideas arrive in the order they should, and nothing about the speaking makes the listener wait. When a pause does come, it is someone thinking about the question, not about English.

Common traps at Band 9

  • Treating Band 9 as a target to aim at, when it is a description of how a very strong speaker already sounds.
  • Assuming a fluent, accurate answer is enough when the topic has not been taken anywhere.
Lexical resourceBands 4–9
Lexical resource

Band 4

What the examiner needs to hear

  • On everyday, familiar subjects you can make yourself understood.
  • On anything you have not met before, only the bare idea gets through.
  • The words you pick are often not the ones you needed.
  • You rarely try to say it a different way when a word will not come.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

Everyday topics come through, but an unfamiliar question narrows the answer to its outline, and the words that arrive sit near the meaning rather than on it. When a word is missing, the sentence usually stops there.

What moves you to Band 5

  • Band 5 copes with unfamiliar subjects as well as familiar ones, even if the words are used stiffly.
  • You start attempting a different way of saying it, and sometimes it works.
  • Meaning stops collapsing the moment the topic is one you did not prepare.

Common traps at Band 4

  • Waiting in silence for the exact word instead of describing the thing you mean.
  • Learning long word lists without the sentences they live in, so the words never arrive at speed.
  • Reusing “good”, “bad” and “very” for every judgement you make.
Lexical resource

Band 5

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You can talk about familiar and unfamiliar subjects alike.
  • The words you have come out in fixed combinations, with little room to bend them.
  • You do try to say things another way when a word escapes you.
  • Those attempts work some of the time and miss the rest.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

You have something to say about any topic, though the words arrive in set combinations that do not bend to fit the question. An attempt at saying it differently sometimes lands and sometimes leaves the listener guessing.

What moves you to Band 6

  • Band 6 has enough vocabulary to discuss a topic at length, not merely to answer the question.
  • Your meaning comes across clearly even though a few word choices are still off.
  • Saying it another way starts to succeed most of the time, rather than some of the time.

Common traps at Band 5

  • One memorised “advanced” phrase per topic, dropped in wherever it can be made to fit.
  • Using a word you have only ever seen written, with a meaning that is nearly right.
  • Echoing the question’s own words instead of putting them differently.
Lexical resource

Band 6

What the examiner needs to hear

  • Your vocabulary is wide enough to talk about a subject at length and to make your meaning clear.
  • A few word choices are still not right for the situation, and that does not stop you reaching this band.
  • When a word will not come, you usually find a way round it that works.

What it sounds like

I admit the first chapter was very slow; it took me a while to know who is related to who.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a book you read recently in the cue-card library.
It is not a very expensive watch, and if I am honest, it doesn’t keep perfect time anymore.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a gift you received that was special to you in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 7

  • Band 7 moves the same vocabulary freely from one subject to the next, rather than topic by topic.
  • Some less common words and some idiomatic language appear, with a feel for which words belong together.
  • Working round a missing word becomes something you can rely on.

Common traps at Band 6

  • Long collocation lists learnt for one topic that never transfer to any other.
  • Formal written vocabulary in a spoken answer, which sounds recited rather than impressive.
  • Saying “very big” or “very good” three times in an answer where one precise word would do.
Lexical resource

Band 7

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You use your vocabulary flexibly, whatever subject the examiner turns to.
  • Some less common words and some idiomatic expressions appear in your answers.
  • You show a feel for style and for which words go together, though not a perfect one.
  • A few choices are still wrong, and at this band they are allowed to be.

What it sounds like

I’ll admit the opening chapters were a slow burn; it took me a little while to keep track of who was related to whom.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a book you read recently in the cue-card library.
…sat outside for what felt like hours just soaking up the atmosphere, and ended up talking to the owner.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a place you visited that you would recommend to others in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 8

  • Band 8 reaches for a wide vocabulary readily, to say something precisely rather than approximately.
  • Less common and idiomatic language is handled skilfully, with only the occasional inaccuracy.
  • A different way of putting it is available every time one is needed.

Common traps at Band 7

  • Idioms used because they were learnt, in places where a plain word would have been more precise.
  • Reaching for a rare word and landing on the wrong register for a conversation.
  • Treating one strong topic’s vocabulary as proof of range across the whole test.
Lexical resource

Band 8

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You reach for a wide vocabulary easily and flexibly, and you say exactly what you mean.
  • Less common and idiomatic language is handled skilfully.
  • Occasional inaccuracies turn up, and they do not count against you here.
  • You can put anything a different way, whenever you need to.

What it sounds like

…it feels less like inheriting a possession and more like being entrusted with a small fragment of family history.
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a gift you received that was special to you in the cue-card library.
…before I could swim confidently across a pool without stopping — embarrassingly slow, I’ll admit, next to children picking up the same skill.
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a skill you learned that took a long time in the cue-card library.

What Band 9 adds

  • At Band 9 the flexibility and the precision hold on every subject, not on almost every one.
  • Idiomatic language is natural and accurate right through.
  • The occasional inaccuracy that Band 8 allows is no longer there.

Common traps at Band 8

  • Precision slipping as soon as an abstract Part 3 question moves off prepared ground.
  • Idiomatic phrases that read well on a page but are not what anyone says out loud.
Lexical resource

Band 9

What the examiner needs to hear

  • Your vocabulary is fully flexible and fully precise, on any subject raised.
  • Idiomatic language sounds natural and is used accurately.
  • There is no topic where you have to settle for an approximate word.
  • Nothing about a word choice makes the listener stop to work out what you meant.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

Every word is the one that was needed, on any subject, and idioms turn up where a very strong speaker would actually use them. Nothing sounds fetched from a list.

Common traps at Band 9

  • Chasing rare vocabulary in the belief that rarity is what this band means; precision is the point.
  • Assuming an accurate answer is a Band 9 answer — this band describes how a very strong user already speaks.
Grammatical range and accuracyBands 4–9
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 4

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You produce basic sentence patterns, and some of your simple sentences come out correct.
  • Clauses tucked inside a sentence — the “because”, “which”, “when” kind — are rare.
  • Mistakes come often.
  • Some of those mistakes leave the listener unsure what you meant.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

Short, basic sentences carry most of the answer, and joining two ideas inside one sentence is rare. Errors arrive often enough that the listener occasionally settles on the wrong meaning.

What moves you to Band 5

  • Band 5 gets the basic sentence patterns right reasonably often.
  • A narrow set of more complex structures is attempted, even though they usually go wrong somewhere.
  • The errors cause some difficulty rather than real misunderstanding.

Common traps at Band 4

  • Avoiding the past entirely by telling every story in the present tense.
  • Learning rules you can recite but have never said out loud at speaking speed.
  • Stringing one long sentence together with “and” instead of saying two correct short ones.
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 5

What the examiner needs to hear

  • Basic sentence forms come out with reasonable accuracy.
  • You attempt a handful of more demanding structures.
  • Those complex attempts usually have something wrong inside them.
  • Sometimes that makes the listener work to follow you.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

Simple sentences are mostly right; the moment a longer structure is attempted, something inside it gives way. The meaning usually survives, but the listener has to repair it.

What moves you to Band 6

  • Band 6 mixes simple and complex sentences right through the answer, not once or twice.
  • Errors inside the complex sentences rarely get in the way of understanding.
  • The range widens, even though how freely you can move around it is still limited.

Common traps at Band 5

  • Staying on safe short sentences so nothing can go wrong, which also means nothing can go up.
  • Beginning a long structure with no plan for how it ends.
  • Repeating one fossilised mistake — the third-person -s, an article, a preposition — all the way through the test.
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 6

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You use a mixture of simple and complex sentences.
  • The range is there, but you cannot move around it freely yet.
  • Your complex sentences often have mistakes in them.
  • Those mistakes rarely stop the listener understanding you.

What it sounds like

A book I read quite recently is a novel that follow three generation of the same family.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a book you read recently in the cue-card library.
It also make us closer as neighbours; we still talk regularly now, a long time after her wrist healed.
From the Band 6 answer on Describe a time you helped someone in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 7

  • Band 7 handles a range of complex sentence patterns with some flexibility, not only the two it is comfortable with.
  • Whole sentences with nothing wrong in them become frequent.
  • Some errors stay — they simply stop being the pattern.

Common traps at Band 6

  • One rehearsed complex sentence per answer, always the same shape in the same place.
  • Leaving repeat-offender errors alone because they never actually block meaning.
  • Speaking faster to hide the grammar, which tends to produce more of it.
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 7

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You use a range of complex sentence structures, and you can move between them with some flexibility.
  • Sentences with nothing wrong in them at all are frequent, not occasional.
  • Some grammatical mistakes are still there, and they do not stop you reaching this band.
  • Both halves of the criterion have to be true at once: the range and the accuracy, not one of them alone.

What it sounds like

…at around twenty-four, having avoided it for most of my life due to a mild fear of deep water.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a skill you learned that took a long time in the cue-card library.
not because it was difficult, but because I could see it actually mattered to her day-to-day life.
From the Band 7 answer on Describe a time you helped someone in the cue-card library.

What moves you to Band 8

  • Band 8’s range is wider still, and it moves around that range flexibly.
  • Most sentences — not merely frequent ones — have nothing wrong in them.
  • The mistakes that remain are one-offs rather than something you get wrong every time.

Common traps at Band 7

  • Collecting complex structures but only ever using them in the first sentence of an answer.
  • Making the same small slip — an article, a preposition, a verb ending — in sentence after sentence, which is exactly what holds accuracy below Band 8.
  • Abandoning a complex sentence halfway, which costs you fluency as well as grammar.
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 8

What the examiner needs to hear

  • Your range of structures is wide, and you move between them flexibly.
  • Most of your sentences come out with no errors in them.
  • The occasional wrong choice or basic slip is treated as a one-off, not as a pattern.

What it sounds like

Having made an error on a client report and bracing myself for a reprimand, I instead found her sitting calmly beside me…
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a person who has inspired you in the cue-card library.
…ended up chatting to the owner, whose recommendations for the rest of the trip proved far more useful.
From the Band 8 answer on Describe a place you visited that you would recommend to others in the cue-card library.

What Band 9 adds

  • Band 9 has the full range, used naturally and in the right place each time.
  • Accuracy is consistent, and the only slips left are the kind native speakers also make.
  • Nothing in the grammar sounds attempted rather than owned.

Common traps at Band 8

  • A wide range on prepared topics that narrows the moment Part 3 turns abstract.
  • Complex structures used for display when the idea called for a short sentence.
Grammatical range and accuracy

Band 9

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You have the full range of structures and use them naturally.
  • Each structure suits the moment you use it in.
  • You are accurate right through.
  • The only slips left are the kind that native speakers make too.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote The cue-card library’s annotated answers run from Band 6 to Band 8, so this band is described.

The structures are chosen by what the idea needs rather than by what can be managed, and they are handled without visible effort. The only errors left are the small slips that fluent speakers of any language make.

Common traps at Band 9

  • Assuming this band means never making a mistake; the descriptors say otherwise.
  • Using elaborate structures to prove range when a simple sentence was the natural choice.
PronunciationBands 4–9
Pronunciation

Band 4

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You use only a narrow set of the pronunciation features — stress, rhythm, intonation, connected speech and individual sounds.
  • You are trying to control them, and the control slips often.
  • Words come out mispronounced frequently.
  • The listener has to work at following you.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

The narrow set of features leaves the delivery fairly flat, and stress often lands on a syllable the listener was not expecting, so familiar words arrive unfamiliar. Most of the answer can be decoded, but decoding it is work.

What moves you to Band 5

  • Band 5 is defined as everything Band 4 does well, plus some of what Band 6 does well.
  • In practice that means a few features start to work — a stretch of natural rhythm, a word stressed where it should be — without lasting.
  • Word stress is usually the cheapest thing to add, because it changes how recognisable a word is more than any single sound does.

Common traps at Band 4

  • Drilling individual sounds only, and never where the stress falls inside a word.
  • Trying to get rid of an accent, which is not what this criterion measures.
  • Learning new words off the page and never hearing them said.
Pronunciation

Band 5

What the examiner needs to hear

  • IELTS gives Band 5 no description of its own: it is defined as all of Band 4’s positive features plus some, though not all, of Band 6’s.
  • Practically, that means more than a narrow set of features is in play, but the ones that work do not turn up often enough for Band 6.
  • Your control is better than at Band 4 and it still lapses.
  • The listener follows you, but not without effort.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

Some of what Band 6 does is already audible — a stretch of natural rhythm, a word stressed correctly — but it comes in patches rather than across the answer. The listener follows you and still has to concentrate.

What moves you to Band 6

  • Band 6 uses a range of features with control that comes and goes.
  • Some of what you do is genuinely effective; Band 6 asks for that effectiveness to be there, even if you cannot sustain it.
  • You are understood all the way through, with mispronounced words or sounds reducing clarity only at moments.

Common traps at Band 5

  • Reading the gap between 4 and 6 as vague and therefore unimportant — the examiner is still deciding which side of it you fall on.
  • Assuming clear individual sounds are enough while the rhythm of the sentence stays flat.
  • Speaking louder rather than more clearly.
Pronunciation

Band 6

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You draw on several of the pronunciation features, and your control of them is mixed.
  • Some of what you do works well, but you cannot keep it going for a whole answer.
  • You are understood from beginning to end.
  • Mispronounced words or sounds make you less clear at times.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

Good control turns up and then drifts: an opening sentence with clear stress and shape, a later one that flattens out. You are understood the whole way through, with the occasional word the listener has to work out.

What moves you to Band 7

  • Band 7 is defined as everything Band 6 does well, plus some of what Band 8 does well.
  • Practically, the effective features start to last longer and cover more of what you say.
  • The moments where clarity dips become rarer.

Common traps at Band 6

  • Careful pronunciation in the first sentence that fades as the answer goes on.
  • Flat intonation that makes a genuinely interesting story sound recited.
  • Swallowing the ends of words, which costs grammar marks too when the ending carries the tense.
Pronunciation

Band 7

What the examiner needs to hear

  • Band 7 has no description of its own either: IELTS defines it as all of Band 6’s positive features plus some, though not all, of Band 8’s.
  • Practically, the pronunciation that already works for you is sustained across more of what you say.
  • You are easy to follow, though following you is not yet effortless throughout.
  • Not every Band 8 feature has to be present — some of them is what the definition asks for.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

Everything Band 6 manages is here and it lasts longer: the rhythm and the stress hold across most of the answer rather than the first part of it. Following you is easy, but not yet completely effortless.

What moves you to Band 8

  • Band 8 uses a wide range of features flexibly and keeps it up, with only occasional lapses.
  • You are easy to understand throughout.
  • Your own accent barely affects how easily a listener understands you.

Common traps at Band 7

  • Hearing “7” as a fixed checklist when it is defined by how much of Band 8 you already do.
  • Practising single sounds in isolation instead of connected speech, where most clarity is won or lost.
  • Assuming the accent has to go; being easy to understand is what is being judged.
Pronunciation

Band 8

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You draw on a wide set of pronunciation features flexibly, and you keep it up.
  • There are occasional lapses, and at this band they are allowed.
  • You are easy to understand throughout.
  • The accent you carry from your first language barely affects how easily you are understood.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

The full set of features is in play and stays in play: stress, rhythm, intonation and linking all do their work for the whole two minutes, with the occasional slip. Whatever accent you have costs the listener nothing.

What Band 9 adds

  • Band 9 uses the full range with precision and subtlety, and holds it for the whole test.
  • The occasional lapse Band 8 allows is gone.
  • Listening to you takes no effort at all.

Common traps at Band 8

  • Losing control on long, complicated sentences, so range and clarity start pulling against each other.
  • Treating a remaining accent as the problem when it is not what the band depends on.
Pronunciation

Band 9

What the examiner needs to hear

  • You have the whole set of pronunciation features available, and you use them precisely and with subtlety.
  • You sustain it for the whole test.
  • Understanding you takes no effort.

What it sounds like

Description, not a quote Pronunciation is the one criterion a written answer cannot show, so this block describes what an examiner hears instead of quoting the library.

Nothing is left for the listener to do. Stress, rhythm, intonation, connected speech and individual sounds are all used precisely and with a fine sense of what each one is for, and they hold from the first question to the last.

Common traps at Band 9

  • Aiming at a native accent, which this band does not ask for.
  • Treating pronunciation as separable from the rest — the examiner hears one performance, not four.

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions candidates ask most about how the four criteria are applied.

What is the difference between Band 6 and Band 7 in IELTS Speaking?

The two bands differ on all four criteria, and the change has the same shape each time: what was occasional becomes typical. In fluency, Band 6 loses the thread from time to time, while Band 7 keeps going without the listener hearing the effort. In grammar, Band 6 makes mistakes inside its complex sentences that rarely block meaning, while Band 7 produces frequent sentences with nothing wrong in them at all. In vocabulary, Band 6 makes itself clear despite a few wrong choices, while Band 7 moves the same words flexibly from one topic to the next and reaches for some less common and idiomatic language.

Are the Speaking band descriptors the same for Academic and General Training?

Yes. There is one Speaking test and one set of Speaking band descriptors, and they apply to Academic and General Training candidates alike. Which version of IELTS you sit changes the Reading and Writing papers, not how a spoken answer is judged.

Why do Pronunciation Bands 5 and 7 have no description of their own?

Because IELTS defines them by the bands on either side. Band 5 is all of Band 4’s positive features plus some, though not all, of Band 6’s; Band 7 is all of Band 6’s plus some of Band 8’s. In practice, an examiner placing you at 7 has heard everything Band 6 asks for and some of what Band 8 asks for, without the full Band 8 picture.

Do examiners score each part of the test separately?

No. The examiner assesses your performance across the whole test and awards one band per criterion, so a shaky Part 2 is not marked in isolation from a strong Part 3. Each criterion is awarded a whole band, and your Speaking band is the average of the four.

Put it to the test

See which band your answer lands on

Speak one answer into IELTS Mentor AI and the AI examiner marks it on these same four criteria, returning a band range from a strict examiner to a lenient one.

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